


Beastly

by bunymyun



Category: NU'EST
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Alternate Universe - Beauty and the Beast Fusion, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Heavy Angst, Just to be safe, M/M, Musicians, No Smut, Physical Disability, Witch Curses, explicit for other reasons, i don't even know what else to tag it, this fic is just heavy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-09
Updated: 2017-08-09
Packaged: 2018-12-13 05:49:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11753364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunymyun/pseuds/bunymyun
Summary: A curse was placed on an arrogant Baekho, making him ugly and deformed. He only has until the last petal on his arm falls to find the true meaning of love, acceptance and life.





	Beastly

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably the heaviest fic I've ever written(?)
> 
> I wrote it a long time ago (like with a lot of my fics), but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

The air was cold. Not like it shouldn't have been, it was winter after all, but today, it seemed unusually cold for California.

New York had been his favorite place to live during the winter, but Baekho was stuck in the Golden State, his parents having sent him on a business trip there to meet with the family of yet another eligible bachelorette. And dammit were those meeting going to kill him one day. 

He hated the meetings to begin with. His mind on the amount of ass he could have been getting at school rather than here, where he was expected to act prim and proper. He hated it. All Baekho wanted to do was to go back to New York and bury himself balls deep into some cheap whore he would pick up from his groupie fan club. All of which, just liked him for his wallet. But he didn't care. Baekho  _ liked _ being balls deep in women. As long as he got off, he could care less. 

He was very well known. Everywhere he went, flocks of freshmen girls would swarm after him in hopes of ending up Baekho's arm candy for the day, the week, if they got lucky. 

To the untrained eye, Baekho was simply some rich Asian kid with a big ego. Other than that, he wasn't particularly _special_ looking. His eyes were a plain brown, his smile crunched up his nose in a rather maniacal way, but he rarely ever smiled like that anymore, choosing to keep his usual poker face. His reputation was much too precious to ruin by not knowing how to smile at the appropriate times. His eyebrows were thick, and unruly. 

He was a strong 7 to most girls, when he wore normal looking clothes. But then he played it up. He began to use his money to his advantage. He began working out, gaining an athletic physique in under one year. His hair had been dyed a shocking shade of blonde, his eyebrows following suit, after being tweezed, of course. 

Baekho had begun dressing nicer, too. Suits for every day of the month it seemed. He wore them well, careful not to wear a similar article of clothing twice in a row within a two month gap. He knew he did well, because on top of his money, he now looked  _ good. _

It wasn't long until that all went up to his head. His popularity increased, and now no one remembered what he used to look like before the change, except for his dark hair. People remembered the hair. Baekho treated everyone and anyone like they were leeches. He hated to mingle with anyone who made any less money than his family did. He didn't associate with anyone who did not have some kind of special connection to his family's riches. Or anyone who wasn't model-esque. 

By the time he was a junior at his university in New York, he had already begun his own ring of elite socialites. He of course, was the leader. Baekho had never thought anything of it, he knew he had people who hated him, more or less an entire army of people who hated him, but he couldn't seem to care. All Baekho wanted was to get through college successfully, graduate, and inherit his family's riches. He wasn't dumb, so college was a breeze for him. He was ready to take on the family title as CEO of their company, but he was not ready by any means to become the face of a company he didn't even care for. What he really wanted was to retire early, probably surrounded by a few classy escorts for the rest of his life. Yeah, that sounded like a pretty good plan to him.

He couldn't help it, his parents were never around and when they were, they treated him like he didn't exist. Or, when they did notice him, they brushed him off with new toys, or money for him to spend. He grew up spoilt, and turned into a brat. Many of socialite friends couldn't stand him, but Baekho had power. By the time Baekho turned 16 his family became the world's leading pharmaceutical distributor. They were well respected, and of course Baekho loved the attention. It spurred him on, to learn how to manage the company, to graduate high school and enter the best business college he could afford, which was, most of them. 

He loved being followed around by hordes of girls who all promised to sleep with him for nothing in exchange. Most of the time, if they were pretty enough, Baekho would let them stick around for a while, but he hated to think that they were only with him for his money. 

He had a reputation to uphold, and the one of multi-billionaire bachelor worked to his advantage. Especially now that his parents sent him all over the world on business trips. He would get acquainted with rich families, in some cases low-key royalty. He loved being able to have this kind of power, and what Baekho loved more, was the prospect that maybe one day, one of the bachelorettes he met might be the one. 

But every single one seemed to be wrong. All wrong. Not a single one appealed to him, not a single girl seemed to fit his vision of perfection and romance. 

By the time his meeting with the Cortez family was over, he walked away bitter and irritated. The daughter of the Cortez' was beautiful, without a doubt. 

Baekho was glad she looked like a princess right off the bat, and that the Cortez family owned a great portion of electrical companies in the US. But when the girl opened her mouth to speak, she sounded ignorant. Everything she said about the company was wrong, and she seemed to only be interested in going out for a Sangria rather than talking business. She would roll her eyes when Baekho would ask questions about her family, and eventually he grew bored, allowing her to walk away and go shopping with her friends. 

Baekho felt his heart close off for the hundredth time, he didn't know how much longer he could keep up with the bachelorette issue. 

He hated to think he was actually going to be a rich bachelor forever. He needed an heir; Someone he could teach how to take over his future empire. 

Baekho sighed as he stepped off of the airplane in New York. He had been gone the entire weekend, and had midterms that week. He'd have to study the rest of the night in order to get caught up enough to pass with flying colors. 

He sat at his desk, reading over the words in the text, not really studying, but memorizing the words so he could just guess later on. He didn't care if he passed, now. The longer he read, the angrier he got at how his life was developing. He knew what he wanted, but it didn't feel right at the moment. 

He moved from his desk to his bathroom, he needed to clear his head, and a cold shower would wake him up long enough to go back to studying. 

Baekho felt better after his shower, he felt more awake, much more alert. And when his phone rang, he smiled a little at the tone. 

"Minhyun to the rescue." He muttered. 

_ "Bro, I know it's a Sunday night, but there's a rave going on in central Manhattan. Ya know, The Witch's Parlour, it's barely about to start, get your ass over here! There's plenty of women to go 'round."  _

Baekho smiled, looking at his clock. it was 10pm. His lecture didn't start until noon the next day. "Give me half an hour. I'll be there."

 

* * *

 

The Witch's Parlour wasn't actually a nightclub, or even an underground club. It moved around the city and nearly always had mysterious things happening. But those were just rumors. 

Baekho knew he was getting close when he could hear the thrumming of the music from a seemingly empty alleyway six blocks away from his apartment complex. The Witch's Parlour was known for playing the same song over and over for 10 minutes so people could find it easily. 

As it turned out, Baekho got lucky this time. Usually, it was much harder to find. He walked down the alley, the symbol of The Witch's Parlour spray painted in neon above a rusty old door. The rules of the Parlour were: If you find it, you are welcome. If you disturb the peace, you will meet a horrible fate. But of course no one actually took that threat seriously, and no one stepped out of bounds as a precaution. 

For reasons Baekho couldn't figure out, the Parlour was filled to the brim tonight.  _ Someone must've ratted out the address, this time.  _ He thought. 

The bodies on the dance floor moved together in synchronization, all of them moving to the new beat of the music, everyone seemingly lost in the melody. Baekho felt his blood heat up, the scene he was in gave him freedom, here, he was known as the King. Baekho moved to the dance floor, not bothering to find Minhyun, rather allowing himself to be swallowed up by the crowd. 

Someone handed him a drink, and he took it, knowing perfectly well that it could have been spiked with some kind of drug. He didn't care. Baekho drank almost everything that was given to him until he started to see the room spin. He relaxed a bit and tried to find somewhere to sit.

He stumbled and knocked a few people over, not really caring as everyone was so far gone in their own world that they ignored him.

Baekho could feel the drinks getting to his system, he knew he had taken something a little stronger than what he was used to. His feet felt heavy and he began to stumble more and more. Looking for the exit was his best option, and on his way, he knocked over a girl with disastrously curly hair, the most shocking shade of blonde he'd ever seen. She turned to face him, and he tried hard not to show disgust.

The girl had a mangled face, as if half of it had been torn off by an animal. She smiled at him, a weird sort of smile that didn't seem friendly, but seemed intimate either way. Baekho tried his hardest to remain focused, and not to fall over.

"That hurt, you know." She said, calmly, looking at Baekho up and down.

"I'll let the little incident slip if you apologize." She said when she realized that Baekho wasn't about to say anything.

The entire time he faced her, Baekho couldn't help but feel he had seen her somewhere before. "Do I know you?" He asked, the words coming out before he could stop them.

The girl smiled, fluffing out her dress that made her look like she belonged in a fairytale rather than Manhattan. "Yes. But I don't expect you to remember me. You're literally the most self centered person on the planet." She said, taking a sip of her green appletini.

Baekho shook his head. This was wrong. He remembered everyone he met. After all, everyone was a potential client. "No way that I know you." She was ugly, too, by his standards. 

"I've never met you in my life." He defended himself, there was just no way Baekho Kang could be associated with a young hag. 

"Oh, but you do know me, Kang. You know me perfectly well. You humiliated me every single day for years. You made sure I had no friends, no hope of a future. You made sure that when I was on that ledge all those years ago, I fell off."

The girl moved closer to Baekho, smiling in a way that made her eyes gleam, and when the flashing of the strobe lights in the Parlour began to flash, Baekho was positive that he saw her facial features move, like a snapshot in motion. Her skin looked like it went back and forth from decaying to as supple as a baby's skin. Her eyes were flashing green, something that the strobe lights couldn't possibly have caused. 

Baekho gasped, and the girl moved around him, a clear malicious laugh surrounding him, the music from the Parlour no longer reaching his ears. Everything seemed to move in slow motion, and Baekho panicked, frozen in his spot. 

The laugh of the girl moved closer to him, and Baekho kicked into fight mode. Instincts he had picked up from years and years of Kendo rushed through him, ready to attack. He didn't care if she was a girl, she was a potential threat. 

The girl stopped in front of him. Her grin turning into a smirk, her right hand raising to be level with his forehead. 

"Poor, poor, Baekho Kang. I know you don't remember. Let me help you..." Her voice drifted off towards the end, as her icy fingers made contact with Baekho's forehead. 

A sharp pain shot through Baekho's skull, reaching his nervous system, and he fell to the ground, seeing the girl follow him down. 

"Can you remember now, Baekho?" She whispered.

 

* * *

 

Baekho's head flooded with images he swore he'd never seen before; memories he'd never lived. But they all seemed so real to him as he replayed them in his mind. Each and every event that passed through him dawned on him like a hangover. Baekho felt dizzy, the room spinning all around him once again, the girl still sitting in front of him, watching him, laughing. 

Baekho saw images of the girl in his head, next. 

What her face looked like before she ended up scarred. He saw her smiling every day at school; she was the poor girl who had gotten a scholarship. She lived on a farm outside of the city, but got to live on campus to make the transition easier on her. 

Baekho remembered. He remembered mocking her for being poor, but he remembered being nice to the girl when no one else was around. 

"Raina...." He muttered when the name popped into his memory. 

The girl smiled. 

"So you  _ do _ remember. Want to see what else you did?" She wasn't laughing as much anymore, but her voice carried so much venom that Baekho grew terrified of what he had done.

"Please...." Baekho begged. 

"Sorry, Kang. I begged, too." She touched his forehead once more, the sharp pain increasing until Baekho lay flat against the dirt Parlour floor. 

Baekho could see how he had dated the girl, for a brief moment. A decision spurred on by Minhyun and Ren, his new friends who happened to own half of the world's car exports. Friends by greed. He shouldn't have listened. 

Images shifted to the four of them being on friendly terms, but Baekho knew that the boys hated the girl, that Raina was nothing more than a joke and that she was going to end up heartbroken. They knew if push came to shove they'd just drop the girl and pretend she never existed. 

Baekho's heart clenched as he watched them interact with the girl. Her hair had been a pretty shade of brown, her eyes looked soft and sweet, her lips used to be soft and pink. Baekho remembers her as pretty, not the demon she embodies now. 

His memories played on as everyone in the club danced, not a single person realizing that there was a man on the floor screaming in agony. It was like he was shrouded, and they were alone. 

The girl in his memories used to laugh and play games with the three boys, actually managing to make them laugh. Baekho's body began to shake as he saw them all get into a car that Ren's father had imported specifically to run tests on. 

Ren lived outside of Manhattan, further out into the more spread out Upper East Side, where his family owned acres of land, and they could go out for a drive. 

They were fifteen at the time, Baekho barely having turned sixteen and having gotten his license. 

_ "It'll be fun! Just one joy ride, Baek, just one!"   _ The boys had begged him to take them out for a spin in the new car, and Baekho, having seen the way the girl stared disapprovingly, agreed. 

_ "You coming, or what?" _ He had asked her, his practiced smile turned on, hand extended to the girl. She took it hesitantly, and got in the passenger seat of the car. 

Baekho knew what he was doing to his relief, and the girl had relaxed visibly. 

They drove for what felt like hours, the skyline changing colors as the sun began to set, their smiles and laughs of joy ringing in their ears as they zoomed past several buildings that belonged to an old fishing company on the outskirts of town. 

The sun was setting at a faster pace than they had anticipated, the sky growing a dark blue, turning purple and making the night sky seem a lot more malicious. 

_ "I don't feel so good..."  _ The girl began to say as she noticed that Baekho was speeding up. 

He had told her to relax, that there weren't any cars out, and that they were perfectly safe. The boys in the back had told her to lighten up, to enjoy the ride, and as Minhyun reached up to change the radio station, he thought it a good idea to cover Baekho's eyes. 

_ "Come on birthday boy, show us your skills! Don't slow down, now. I'll be your eyes."  _

The girl began to panic, trying to take Minhyun's hands away from Baekho, so he could see properly, the headlights turning off as Baekho's knee knocked into it. Their speed increased, and they started to swerve. 

Before they knew it, the car was crashed into from the left rear side by a semi-truck. 

The car spun out of control, Baekho flew forward, hitting the steering wheel hard enough on impact that he was knocked unconscious, blood spurting from his nose and left ear. 

Ren flew against the window, his face cracking the glass, his arm twisting into a broken angle. 

Minhyun stumbled forwards, his grip on the seat in front of him being the only thing that kept him from flying out of the car, pieces of glass stabbing his extended arm as his body was now half way into the passenger seat. . 

The girl however, wasn't so lucky. 

The car didn't have seatbelts, and from the angle they had been hit, she got the worst of it. Momentum worked against her, throwing her against the passenger door, her head shattering the glass, shards of it catching on her cheeks, pulling it apart. Her shoulder dislocated on impact, and her hip cracked. 

The trip from the hospital Baekho has no recollection of. He did remember waking up with a throbbing head, and a massive concussion. He wasn't allowed to leave the hospital for three days, whereas Minhyun and Ren had only gotten their injuries tended to. A broken nose and arm for Ren, and several stitches and bruises for Minhyun. 

The girl was in the hospital for an entire month, Baekho didn't remember a single thing. 

The doctors had to tell him what had happened, and who he was with, but Baekho's parents had a different idea, and kept the girl a secret from him. To Baekho, it had been a birthday ride between friends, a small escape from their homes that ended in a terrible way. 

They went on with their lives, and when the girl came back to school, she still had half of her face bandaged. She became the end of everyone's jokes, how she should have died, because now no one would want her. And Baekho, he joined in the bullying. 

He called her ugly. 

The girl had been briefed by Baekho's parents that she was nothing to him, that she could have died, and that no one would have cared. They told her that if she ever got close to Baekho again, they would destroy what was left of her life. She begged the Kang's to leave her in peace, she just wanted to finish school.

Still, the girl remained silent whenever Baekho would address her. 

He tormented her, and when he found her on the roof one day, he left her there, not even trying to help, or trying to talk her out of it.

 

* * *

 

Baekho looked up to her from the floor. His eyes were watering, and he could see the agony in her eyes. 

"I never jumped, but you told me to. And after so many years, I finally found you." Her voice was icy, and went straight to his heart. Baekho knew he had hurt this girl, now. That he ruined her life, and an apology would never make up for it. 

He was terrified for what she could do. He feared no one would see what was happening. Baekho was convinced she was going to kill him as she pulled him up by his hair. He flinched, scrambling to pick himself up. 

"Raina! P-please!" 

The girl sneered at him, "Your life is so _perfect_ , Baekho." 

The strobe lights in the room had stopped long ago, and Baekho was starting to refocus on his surroundings, the pain no longer searing hot. The people around him seemed to move at a normal pace now, and everything seemed less misty. 

The girl gripped his hair harder, tilting his head back, a finger running down his throat. 

"I think you need a change in your life, Baekho." She hissed in his ear. "But first, answer me one question."

Baekho grunted at the tight grip in his hair. "If you promise to let me go, I will."

The grip in his hair loosened. She moved to face him once again. "Do you think I'm pretty?" she asked, her entire demeanor changing to the one of the girl he had just seen in memories he didn't even know he had. Her hair was brown and styled cutely, her eyes looked warm, and she didn't have any scars. Baekho smiled. And as he was going to answer, her looks switched back in the blink of an eye. 

He jumped back, coming face to face with the terrifying girl who had just torn his world apart.

"No!" Baekho shouted. "No. You're disgusting." 

As Baekho glanced at her once more, she seemed to glow. 

_ "So are you. And now you have the face to match."  _ Her voice was quiet, Baekho could barely understand her.  _ "No one will ever love you, and you, you will remain cursed until you truly understand what beauty is." _

She began to turn away from him, and then stopped. 

"One more thing: You have until your next birthday."

Before Baekho could follow her, she disappeared into the crowd. 

He thought she was crazy, that she was bluffing, but when Baekho moved to the exit, he caught his reflection on a mirror. His face looked mangled, as if he had been a burn victim, the places where you could usually see his blueish veins, now looked like someone had injected him with silver paint. 

Baekho's arms looked spotted, as if he had grown up with horrible eczema, and never cured it, or tried to. 

He was almost afraid to look at his own eyes, he knew he had to, but it took him several deep breaths, and several failed attempts until he was able to look into his own eyes, a bright shade of red that didn't match him at all. He looked like a demon, his hair had lost the blonde color and looked more white and dull than his perfectly cared for dye-job. His nails had grown into claws, black and green, as if infected, and his teeth were now all sharp and broken, looking like he was a well fought animal. 

He ran out of the club, ignoring the calls he was receiving on his phone. He had forgotten about Minhyun. He had forgotten about meeting up with him. By the time he got home, he was sweating, the cold Manhattan air clearing his head. He was thinking straight, and functioned better. 

The path to his room was slow, he couldn't believe what he was seeing. His nails were ripping the wallpaper as he grabbed onto it for support. His home looked a lot more frigid. He didn't remember it looking so alone. His parents were never around; they chose to give him the top floor of an apartment complex so that he could live more comfortably, and right now, alone was what he needed. 

Maybe if he went to sleep everything would be resolved in the morning.

 

* * *

 

Absolutely nothing changed in the morning. If anything, the pain from the changes in his body, got worse. Baekho felt like he had gotten hit by a train, and was suffocating in his sleep, but he managed to make it through the night, barely.

Looking in the mirror wasn't as hard as it had been the night before, but the anger inside of him boiled. He had no idea how he was going to pull off going to his lecture when he looked like a beast. 

He knew he had to think of something, his lecture was mandatory due to his midterms. If he skipped, he would get dropped from the class, and he couldn't do that. This whole thing would be over by then, getting someone to love him wouldn't be so easy. And he already loved himself plenty. This 'curse' would be broken soon enough. Dropping classes would be foolish. 

The alarm on his phone rang throughout his room. He had one hour to get to his lecture and he still hadn't figured out his...situation. He looked through all of his clothes, nothing fancy enough was going to cover up his silver marks. Sighing, he knew there would only be one way to fix this, and it pained him a bit to resort to his older clothes. 

He grabbed his hoodie and matching sweats, pulling them on and grabbing a beanie and the darkest scarf he could find. It covered up most of everything, except his face.

Thinking he looked for a face mask that Minhyun liked to wear and left around his apartment frequently. 

He ate his breakfast, and biked all the way to his campus. If he wanted to look like shit, he was just going to disguise himself to look the part. Hopefully no one noticed his absence. The halls were large enough that he could get away with it. 

He would text Minhyun and Ren to not wait up for him, he wouldn't be making it to class because he had a business meeting. Baekho would make sure to sit on the opposite side of the lecture hall, and sit towards the front where his friends wouldn't recognize him. 

He felt invisible. No one paid him any attention, he walked freely throughout the campus without being swarmed by needy girls, or wRainabes. It felt different. He didn't feel pressure to be a leader, to be the one who everyone practically worshipped. 

He entered the lecture hall and sat in the very first row all the way in the back. From this vantage point, Minhyun and Ren couldn't possibly see him. He eased into his seat, ready for a nap, and completely unprepared for the midterm. He didn't even have a booklet, but someone always had an extra, and he would ask for a pencil too. 

He smiled to himself under the mask, it was going to be perfectly fine. He was going to be fine. 

He felt a tap on his shoulder. 

"You're in my seat." A raspy voice muttered. 

Baekho sat up, looking at the guy who interrupted his pre-midterm nap. "So sit in front of me? The seat is empty, and I also got here first." 

The boy in question shook his head. "No, this is my seat. I'm being serious. I need the outlet that's somewhere behind your thigh, against the wall. Please move."

Baekho raised an eyebrow at him. "Fine, I'll give you the seat if you give me a test booklet. And a pencil." The taller boy shrugged off his back pack, sighing deeply, muttering to himself. He pulled a booklet out, and shoved his hand back into his bag, looking for a pencil. 

"Here. Now move." 

As soon as Baekho brushed past the boy, he sat, pulling out a charger, and setting up his laptop. 

Baekho couldn't help but stare. This was JR Kim, the weirdest, quietest kid on the entire campus. It was rumored that he was reclusive because he had a mental illness, others said it was because he was mentally challenged. But Baekho didn't believe that. Whenever he wasn't paying attention to the professor, Baekho liked to look around and observe his classmates. Somewhere always taking notes, others playing games on their laptops, some doing other homework and some sleeping. But never JR. 

JR always took notes, always paid attention to the professors, always gave the correct answer if the professor asked for one. Baekho didn't think he was weird, introverted, yes, but never weird. Baekho had seen him in the music halls as well. That was the first time Baekho had decided that JR wasn't a weirdo like everyone had thought. He had seen how JR's fingers floated over the violin he donned in the hall. Saw the way his fingers twitched with every note. 

Baekho knew from Minhyun's experience in the orchestra, that it was no joke to get in. And to even attempt to be first chair like JR had his first semester was unheard of. 

The Winter Showcase was an annual event in which the entire campus was asked to go to for extra credit. Naturally, Baekho would go to keep up appearances. He would never openly admit he loved music, or that he loved to sing. He had always had a desire to be on the stage along with the choir, or to be the star vocalist for the showcase. But the son of a tycoon like himself would make a fool of himself, he had been told as a child. So Baekho went every year to every show, and never missed a single one, always getting attention from the press as he walked arm in arm with a model or an equally rich woman. 

Reputation was everything to him. 

And JR's was one that didn't fit with his. Despite admiring his talent on the violin for years, Baekho humiliated the boy on numerous occasions. He had gone as far as hiding the boy's belongings in the music hall's storage rooms. He laughed for hours as Minhyun and Ren watched with him look for them. They laughed and laughed until tears formed at their eyes and finally went home, not bothering to check if he ever found his belongings. 

Now that Baekho thought about it, there was something off about the guy. He just didn't know what, but he also didn't care enough to find out.

The day passed, not a single mention of why Baekho had gone missing on the day of midterms. Whispers had surfaced about him being at The Witch's Parlour, but no one had seen him since. They had all assumed Baekho was out for business, as usual. 

He had never experienced the rumor mill from this angle, hearing what people truly thought of him, instead of what he thought they did. 

_ "I saw him last night. He was dancing with the witch, and before I knew it, she was gone! Like a cloud of smoke. Maybe something bad happened to Kang?" _ A girl who sat a few seats ahead of him in his political science class was saying to her friends. 

_ "No way! I've seen her around too. Always says she's looking for someone. She said that the raves would stop once she found them."  _ The girl whispered back, clearly still not quiet enough, since Baekho could hear every word.  _ "Tonight's midterm celebration got cancelled, and I don't think it's a coincidence. Kang Baekho went missing, that's for sure. And the witch did it."  _

Baekho felt his fingers close in on themselves. He was angry at her for what she did. She didn't have a right to do this to him when he wasn't at fault for forgetting her. If he could take it all back, he would. He placed his head in his hands, it hadn't even been one day and already, he was frustrated about having to hide and not go on about his day to day activities. 

Everywhere he went, he ended up hearing a rumor about himself and the witch. 

He was getting fed up. 

As he tried to return home he saw Minhyun approaching his bike. "Shit."

Minhyun leaned on the bike, fully alert and on the look out for his best friend. 

Baekho turned on his heels making a bee-line for the opposite direction. He was too busy avoiding Minhyun that he didn't notice that he was headed straight for the same boy who carried a mystery in his bones. 

Their bodies crashed into each other at full force. Baekho letting out a grunt as he remained in his spot, the thinner boy landing on his back, a moan releasing from his lips at the force of impact. 

"Watch where you-" They yelled at the same time, different levels of anger apparent in their voices. 

Baekho grunted when he saw JR laying on the floor, his violin case strewn a few feet away, the boys sunglasses askewed on his face. His back pack seemed to have taken the most impact, probably having protected the boy from gaining any injuries. A few people came to help the boy up, who just remained where he was, until someone's hand touched him, and the boy jolted. His eyes widening in shock, as if he hadn't been sitting on the floor for a good minute. 

Baekho felt bad, and wanted to say something, but again, something about the boy intrigued him. Baekho's mouth twitched when he saw the boy was okay, allowing himself to smile under the mask. 

"Are you okay?" A voice that Baekho immediately recognized asked the boy who was now getting his violin case from the grip of hands Baekho knew all too well. 

"Yes. Thank you Mingi. But I have to get going now." JR whispered, briskly walked past the two boys left at the scene. 

Baekho thought he was in the clear as Ren walked past him as well, but he soon turned. "If you're trying to avoid us, it isn't going to work, Kang. We know your horrible fashion sense when we see it. Come on. We're going to your place." 

Baekho shook his head. He should have known. Of course they'd realize who he was if they got close enough. And Ren had definitely been close enough. So he followed the taller red-headed boy to where Minhyun was still waiting at the bike rack. 

"Told you I'd get him before you. Pay up." Ren happily cheered as he held his hands out to Minhyun. Sighing, he reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys to Minhyun's Maserati. Ren grinned, and jumped in place. "Best. Day. Ever. I get to fuck up Minhyun's car and he can't say anything!" He explained as he looked at a very confused Baekho. Minhyun shrugged. 

"It's last years model, Ren. Like I actually care." 

Ren shrugged, walking ahead, allowing the other two males to follow behind. The three walked in silence, watching as Ren texted away on his phone, almost walking into the street several times, and having to hold him back from walking into traffic. 

"You know, if you were trying to avoi-"

"I wasn't avoiding you guys. I just felt like having  a peasant's' day out." He shrugged. 

Minhyun stared at his friend. "So, nothing happened with the witch?" 

Baekho cursed under his breath. "Oh, Christ, not you too? Does everyone know? Or do they all suspect something else?"

Minhyun laughed. "They're just rumors, no need to get worked up about a little thing like a rumor about the witch-that-doesn't-even-exist."

As they got to the elevator leading to Baekho's floor, a deadly silence seeped in. Baekho was being cornered without the other two even knowing. He began to sweat, he was nervous for once, and he didn't like the feeling. He already knew his friends hated anyone who was of lower class than they were. He also knew that they held beauty in the highest standard, even for men. 

Walking into his apartment, Baekho immediately went to the living room, ready to just lay down and expect his friends to just go home eventually. If they got hungry, they could feed themselves. Baekho was  _ not _ going to take his mask off. Not at all.

He felt hands reach from behind him, pulling the mask away from his face. 

A sharp gasp, followed by another, and Baekho's eyes immediately closed shut.

"What the fuck happened to you?!" Ren yelled. 

"You look like the Crypt Keeper, holy shit." Came from Minhyun who had long since dropped the mask to the floor.

Baekho remained quiet, not really knowing what to do, or say. For the first time, Baekho was speechless. 

He waited for their reactions; he was met with silence, and soon, the sound of footsteps fleeing sank his heart.

Baekho had only ever cried once before in his life. And that one time was when his dog died when he was 10 years old. 

But now, Baekho sat on his knees in the middle of the loft. He slowly pulled off his beanie, holding it in between his hands. 

He had no one. No friends, no family. 

It took him an entire hour to realize however, that he didn't need them. His parents rarely showed him affection, and his so called friends only got close to him because of his family's money. 

He wasn't about to let them define him. Baekho knew better than that. 

So he stood up, and walked to the bathroom. He washed his face, and looked at himself in the mirror for what he thought was hours. He knew he had to do this in order to make the curse lift. 

Baekho wasn't happy with what he looked like. He never was, he had always been insecure, had always felt judged. But now, at his absolute worst, he decided it was time to not give a single fuck about his appearance. If he had to start all over in order to be freed of the hideous curse, then he was going to own what he was given.

He looked for an old pair of clippers, and stared himself in the mirror. It was now, or never. 

He took the clippers to his nape, and began to drag his hair up in smooth motions until he had an undercut in his hair. He allowed the top to be a little longer than he normally liked, but he figured it would work out better this way.

When that was done, Baekho put his beanie back on, grabbed his keys, and headed down to the parking garage. 

He zoomed off to the closest store and bought all of the clothes he could think of, anything that when worn would make children who didn't know better, cower in fear. He walked away with several bags worth of black clothes. 

His last stop wasn't so much of a need as much as it was an impulse. He had almost made it home once more when he saw the neon sign against a window. Tattoo Parlour. Baekho almost laughed, but he turned into the street, and parked behind the small building. 

He walked in, pulling his beanie off, throwing his ID at the woman behind the counter. 

"Get me your best artist." 

The woman smiled, popping her gum at him. "Follow me."

Baekho did as was told, and followed the lady. She gestured for him to sit, and he did."What do you want to get done, big guy?" 

He almost gagged at the undertone of the woman, but he held it back, and said, "All black, line art. Map out the constellations for all I care." 

The gum popped one more time. "Gimme a sec." She reached over for a folder, and pulled it open. Baekho saw the dozens of designs, and then he saw it. 

The woman laughed, "Good taste. Shouldn't take too long. How's your pain tolerance?" 

Baekho laughed at her. "Just do it." 

The woman nodded, getting her tools prepped and plastering the design carefully on Baekho's back and ribs. "I'll do the ribs first so you can just lay flat for the rest of the time." She said as she began the needle. The tattoo was in fact, simple line art. It decorated only a small portion of Baekho's ribs, and although it took up all of his back, it didn't look cluttered or messy.

The lines of the solar system bent with each other, curved into his back neatly, gave a stark contrast to his skin that the woman admired. Baekho hissed when the needle hit his bone in a few uncomfortable places, but otherwise remained silent. 

Three hours passed, and the paths along with the planets were finished. She wiped down the blood left on his skin, and slathered him in vaseline.

"Keep it clean, and if you ever want more, I'd love to do you." She said, winking, as she lead him to the front of the shop, Baekho handing here his card, and then leaving.

Baekho came back two days later for simple triangles that repeated on his forearms. 

The first time Baekho noticed a difference was when he walked into his Philosophy lecture. He no longer wore his suits, but embraced his new look. His stark white hair glowed and his veins now shimmered in the light. Whispers erupted as they began to realize who the "freak" was. 

"Baekho Kang" suddenly didn't seem like a beloved name and Baekho hated it. 

He stared them all down, daring anyone to say something to his face. And when he locked eyes with Minhyun and Ren, they smirked at him, getting up from their seats, and walking over to him.

"Didn't think you'd have the gall to actually show up, Kang." Minhyun said, poking his chest, knowing exactly how to push Baekho's buttons. Ren laughed. 

"What? Did you think we'd really keep hanging out with you after you got fucked over by the witch? We may be reckless, but even we don't dabble with magic." his face looked serious, and downcast. 

"I don't really care. I knew you'd turn on me as soon as you saw. So go on with your lives, don't let my horrific sate bother you. You guys are nothing without me anyway." He said as he walked past them to go sit in the back of the class once  more, pulling out his laptop and trying to ignore everyone who stared.

"You get used to it, really." The boy next to him said, making Baekho turn to him.

"It's different. They used to stare before, but now it's just...unwelcomed." He mused, not entirely sure why he was talking to the boy. 

JR laughed from his seat, pulling out his book and taking out his laptop as well. "It's not fun being on this end of the stick is it?"

Baekho was going to say something to the boy in return, but the professor had arrived, and turned out the lights for his powerpoint. "Congrats on your midterms, you all passed. Barely. Only one person got a 5 and everyone else got a 3. As expected. JR, come pick up your paper from my desk after lecture, I have something to discuss with you." 

JR nodded, and went back to looking at his book. "Now, turn to Socrates and look at line 30 paragraph 2 and give me your opinion on it now. Submit via Classchat to me. I guarantee your opinion will change by the end of the lecture. Send me that opinion after lecture and you are free to leave." 

The professor gave them 10 minutes for them to write on Socrates' wax candle. He then plunged into the lecture, and Baekho felt his mind drifting off. He didn't care if Socrates was considering that the universe as we know it was actual or not. He just wanted to go to his next lecture and stay on campus for as long as possible so he didn't have to sit in his apartment, alone.

Baekho's phone hadn't made a single noise all day, he felt odd. He had no one. 

He felt like a ghost, not a beast. 

The stares he would get now went right through him. He didn't appreciate them, and he didn't like being talked about like a social pariah.

 

* * *

 

He wandered, walking in no particular direction until he got tired and sat under the campus gazebo, watching the first snow of the season fall. He screamed when he felt it all building up in him. He didn't know how to feel.

"You know, if you were just going to scream, you could have done that at some rooftop." 

"JR!" Baekho yelped. "How long have you been there?" He asked, genuinely not knowing when the lanky boy had arrived.

"I always sit here after my last lecture before going home. But it looks like you might need the silence more than me." He stood up quickly, knocking over his violin case, some of the music sheets that were in the side pocket fell out. 

Baekho wondered why JR only bent down to pick up the case, and not the sheets. He watched as the boy slung his bag over one shoulder, and gripped onto the handle of the case, walking away from the sheets. 

"Uhhh...littering isn't very nice, JR." The boy froze, turning on his heels slowly, and walking over to where he had just been before pausing.

Baekho watched curiously as the boy remained still, clearly looking at the papers. Baekho was starting to think the boy was stupid, but as he kneeled on the ground and began to feel around for the music sheets, it hit him: JR couldn't see.

His throat closed up on him, shock flooded him, and Baekho felt regret. 

He remembered every single time that he had been awful to the boy. Remembered the time he had taken it too far and taken the boy out of the hall once, and dragging him out to the park. He had taken his belongings, and left him there as an "initiation" to the school for the elite.

"Shit." He said, and JR stopped. 

"Why didn't you say you were fucking blind?" Baekho hissed as he leaned down to help JR pick up his music sheets. He fully expected to be pushed away, or to get yelled at, but he was met with silence. 

Baekho looked up to look at the boy, suddenly fearing he had said the wrong thing.

"Would you have treated me any different if you knew?" JR said, his voice trembling as he found one of the music sheets. Baekho paused, thinking about what JR had asked. And he knew, he knew he really would have treated JR differently if he had known he was blind. He wouldn't have ever stolen his belongings, he would have never left JR to look for the objects by himself in the dark the way he had. 

"I- yeah. I would have." he finally said, helping pick up the rest of the music sheets, handing them to JR as he finished picking them up. 

Now that Bakeho held them in his hands, he could feel the slight bumps on the pages. 

"Music can be written in Braille?" he asked, wonder in his voice.

JR took the sheets that were placed into his hands. "Yes, it can. You'd be surprised what comes in Braille."

JR huffed and stormed away, walking at a speed that Baekho had never seen him walk, the snow crunching slightly under JR's feet as he disappeared.

Baekho stared at the boy.  _ Blind _ .

He knew why the boy was so mysterious now, the look in JR's eyes had always seemed far away, glossy. He never once thought that the boy was blind. He had carried this burden with him for who knows how long. JR must have had to adjust his entire life to be able to walk around as carefree as he was around the campus.

Baekho wanted to know how he did it.How JR was able to have so much confidence in his every step. Baekho wanted to know how it was that JR was able to get as good as he was at music when he couldn't even  _ see _ what he was playing. 

He remained at the gazebo, silent and pensive. He had everything, and nothing all at once. 

Baekho needed to change his life. 

And he knew that JR was the start.

 

* * *

 

The rest of the semester was living hell for Baekho. The first week had gone by quietly, but Baekho had been expecting the silence to turn into what he used to do to others. 

He had gone out on Sunday to visit the music hall he loved so much. He had spent hours there, listening to the orchestra practice. He seemingly forgot all of his worries, getting lost in the sound of the music. He could hear how the violins synchronized, and he loved when they cried in sorrow, or sang in joy. 

He recognized several of the songs, and loved each and every one. He couldn't wait until the Winter Showcase. But that was until much later. 

For now, Baekho walked into the cold November air. He had to go home to write a Philosophy paper and get some much needed sleep.

When Baekho opened the door to his loft, he froze. 

The entire place had been trashed. Every breakable item was on the floor, crushed in pieces, his clothes thrown about everywhere, torn. He could see the walls furthest away from his bed were graffitied, horrid messages threatening his life.

Baekho had a hard time accepting that he really was losing everything. He gripped the counter in the hallway, his claws gripping the wooden surface, his anger increasing. A growl escaped his lips, and he saw red flash before his eyes. He knew exactly who had done this, and he knew he couldn't do a single thing about it. 

Walking up to his safe, Baekho pulled out all of his emergency money, stuffed it in his bag, and walked out of his apartment. 

He would get revenge, but for now, he had to hide himself away. 

He felt his teeth ache from how angry he was. He tasted blood from his lips, but he didn't care, he walked out of the building, and headed back to the campus. 

He walked straight to the library, setting down his bag, and setting his laptop down. Firing it up, he began to grow impatient. 

Baekho emailed the dean of his school, claiming that he would be leaving temporarily from classes due to business overseas. He promised the dean to complete his classes if he was given permission to do them online.

Within minutes, he received the 'ok' to do so, relief flooding through him. He now had time to get himself together. 

He sighed, not knowing what to do. Low growls were caught in Baekho's throat, and he began to see red flash again. Shaking his head, hard, he waited until the red blurs were gone. 

His head was spinning from the force he used, he was getting stronger. Maybe this was what the witch had meant. 

She had given him until his next birthday to break the curse, and here he was, wasting time, alone, in a library. 

"Leave me alone!" a voice from far away resounded throughout the library's halls, but no one seemed to pay attention. Baekho stared at the few people in the library who didn't flinch one bit at the sound.

Scoffing, he tried to focus on his plans for the future. 

"I told you to leave me alone! Stop!" 

Baekho recognized the voice. It was JR. Without thinking, Baekho stood, effectively garnering attention.  _ Oh, now they pay attention. _

But it began to dawn on them that maybe Baekho really was the only person who could hear JR calling out for help. 

"Please go away. P-please!" JR's voice cracked in a way that sounded terrified, as if he was beginning to cry.

Baekho threw his laptop into his bag, scratching it's cover. He didn't care. He threw his bag over his shoulders and ran to the voice. 

By now, Baekho could definitely hear that JR was crying. He was still pleading to be let go, for his aggressor to back away. Whoever it was, wasn't listening, and he was careful not to make any noise. He began to run, his instincts kicking into a high he'd never felt before. 

Listening to JR's sobs, his feet carried him to the voice. As he got closer, he could see that JR was being assaulted by a blonde. Baekho growled, his blood boiling. 

"Get away from him." His voice came out in a tone he'd never heard before. It sounded like he had growled the words out, his voice deepening, and his tone venomous. The blonde jumped away from the boy, and Baekho realized it was Ren. Now he was really angry. 

"Get away from him Choi. Now." his fists were closed, and he could feel his claws digging into his skin, puncturing his skin, causing blood to fall. Ren gathered confidence, and moved to grab JR's face, looking at Baekho dead in the eyes before leaning down to kiss a whimpering JR. 

Baekho saw red, and before he could stop himself, he moved towards the two males, tearing Ren away from JR, pulling him up by the collar, and lifting him into the air. "Touch him again, and you die." He threatened. 

Ren smirked. "No. Touch  _ me _  one more time, and  _ you'll _ be dead. You saw what we did to your apartment, Kang. That was just the beginning."

He growled, and threw Ren across the room, not giving a single shit where he landed. He heard Ren cry out in pain, but Baekho didn't hear any bones crack, so he assumed he was okay. His rage was slowly starting to dissipate as he moved towards JR, who was still whimpering, and small hiccups erupted from his mouth. 

"JR." He said, trying to calm down enough so that his voice wasn't loud, or as low as it was before. "JR, are you okay?"

The boy shook his head, and he refused to look up at Baekho. His hands were clasped together, as if he had been praying. Baekho's heart dropped. JR  _ had  _ been praying. The boy was shaking, and his tears had formed salty tracks on his face. Baekho stood in front of JR, holding out his hand to nudge the boy. He jumped at the touch, but seemed to relax as Baekho began to move his hand away from the spot. "JR, listen to me. Ren is gone. He won't hurt you."

There was a long pause as Jr took in a shaky breath.

"But... you might." 

Baekho's hand dropped. He frowned, and he shook his head. Kneeling, he sat in front of JR, slowly touching his knee. "Is this okay?" He asked. JR nodded, not saying anything else. "I won't hurt you JR. I know I've done some shit in the past that I really shouldn't have, but things are different. I swear."

JR laughed a little, nervously, as if Baekho was just lying, and he didn't believe him. "And why should I ever believe you?" He said, his voice gaining strength, and sounding angry. 

Baekho panicked a little. How could he make JR believe him? 

It clicked in his head almost as soon as he looked into JR's eyes. Baekho reached for JR's hands. "I'll show you." He picked up Jr's hands from his lap, and splayed JR's hands on his face.

An immediate gasp came from him. Baekho felt the cold fingers trace delicately over the skin that was mangled, he felt JR's fingers run over the skin of his face, cooling him down, the red in his eyes no longer visible.

"You haven't always looked like this, have you?" He whispered. Baekho nodded. "So the rumors are true. The witch cursed you." 

Baekho nodded. "I lost everything. But it's taken me this long to realize that even with everything I thought mattered to me being gone, I'm still better off than some." 

JR sat in silence. "Thank you" he said, several minutes later, his hands still holding on to Baekho's face, feeling the veins on his face, and the scars. "For helping me. I don't know how you did it. No one even knows I come here, and suddenly, his hands were covering my mouth, and his lips...." 

JR began to choke up, sobs beginning to form again. "Don't, JR. Don't give him the satisfaction."  he whispered to the boy. 

"Ren is used to getting what he wants. So is Minhyun. And they get away with it because they don't care about anyone other than themselves. Those two...they're dangerous. I know, I grew up with them." 

Jr stopped sniveling. "I don't know where my stuff is." 

Baekho laughed, standing up, and helping JR on his feet. "Come on, I'll help you look."

 

* * *

 

Over the next few weeks Baekho followed JR around, making sure he didn't get into some kind of trouble. Making sure Ren didn't get to him and do something terrible to the boy. 

After the first incident, Baekho had followed the boy home, keeping an arm's length distance, letting JR feel more comfortable. "This is the part where you jump me, huh?" He joked. Baekho scoffed, shaking his head. "You just want me to touch you, weirdo." Baekho laughed when he saw the boy's cheeks redden. He suddenly got an idea. "Hey, JR, are there any available rooms here? I kinda want to lay low for a while after what happened." He scratched the back of his head, embarrassed he had asked to begin with. The student hostel was so plain and boring that Baekho almost cringed.

Almost.

JR had shrugged. "I'm not sure. You'd have to ask Mrs. Kwak. She runs the place. You can come in if you want."

Baekho smiled, and followed after JR. After a quick talk with Mrs. Kwak, and her husband, who didn't seem surprised or disgusted by his appearance, Baekho had paid them in full. JR was already in his room, the notes of a crying violin sweeping through the hostel. 

It was going to be a long winter, he knew. 

It took a few days, but Baekho became accustomed to the hostel, and soon he got used to simply following JR around, learning how to keep quiet, and not make any unnecessary noises as he trailed behind him.

 

* * *

It happened in the library.

Baekho sat in the dark corner, mask over his face as he pretended to read a book as he watched JR study, his fingers flying over endless amounts of pages in Braille, when Ren approached him. He sat right next to JR, asking in a higher pitch if he could sit down. JR nodded without looking up. That was JR's specialty, Baekho realized. No one had ever caught on to JR's disability because he always seemed indifferent to those around him. 

Ren took out a few things from his bag, and Baekho realized what they were immediately. A small vial that looked like nail polish, green liquid floating inside. Baekho decided to take out his phone, which he had long since disconnected after telling his parents he was going to be on vacation for who-knows-how-long, and began taking pictures. He knew exactly what Ren was doing, and Baekho felt his heart begin to race. He had physical proof of how much of a creep Ren was. When Ren finally began to spread the liquid into a cloth, Baekho began to take video, cutting it off as soon as the cloth got too close to JR, and Ren's other hand held JR in place.

Baekho ran to JR, pushing Ren off of him, his phone was still recording, and Baekho zoomed in to Ren's face, and the bottle of chlorophyll he had used. He then made sure that he took the bottle away, and asked JR if he was okay on film. When JR nodded, Baekho stopped filming.

"I told you not to touch him ever again." Baekho hissed. "Leave JR alone, or I will, make sure you can never walk again."

JR clutched on to Baekho's leg, catching his attention. "Stop. I'm okay. Just stop, Baekho."

Baekho stood down, helping JR to his feet. "Let's go home, the Showcase is tonight. If I miss that, I'll lose first chair."

Nodding, Baekho helped gather JR's belongings, handing them to him as they walked out of the library. "I know you've been following me, Baekho. And I'm kind of thankful. Once people realize I'm blind, they either leave me alone, or they take advantage of it." JR whispered as they walked down the halls of the campus, snuggling into their coats as the cold air bit into their skin. 

"Ren found out about a year before you did. He's been doing these things to me ever since. Sometimes he goes too far, other times it was harmless stupid pranks. Like when the three of you hid my book bag in the basement. That sucked, but it's nothing compared to what Ren has gotten away with." JR's breath was releasing long curling clouds of fog as he spoke. He was holding back, and Baekho felt like killing Ren. He knew that 'too far' probably had something to do with why JR was crying and shaking so terribly when he had last found them together.

"He didn't.. you know...rape you, did he?" He asked, praying to whatever deity was listening that Ren hadn't been that cruel. 

"No, no. The most he's done is force me to touch him, kiss him, and-" JR's mouth began to tremble, and Baekho felt himself close his hands around JR's. "You don't have to keep talking about it if you don't want, JR." 

The boy nodded, and paused. "My name is Jonghyun. I like that better." The smile he directed at Baekho was something he'd never seen. Not with the hundreds of girls he'd picked up at clubs, or the bachelorettes his parents forced him to meet. No, his smile was radiant, and even though his eyes were foggy, they sparkled when he smiled. 

Baekho felt his heart lurch, his stomach flipped in a pleasing way. "Jonghyun. Got it." he said, and he squeezed his hand to move forward.

 

* * *

The Winter Showcase was exactly what Baekho had imagined, as the orchestra played it's final song, Jonghyun was asked to stand, a final long and beautiful melody dripping from the violin he donned. Baekho sat with the Kwaks, who looked like proud parents, rather than landlords, and he smiled too. The final sound of Jonghyun's violin cried out, and fake snow fell from the catwalks, showering the orchestra in a beautiful image of white.

As Jonghyun's bow stilled, and the note resonated throughout the hall, dead silence accompanied. No one made a single noise, and finally, in unison, the hall erupted in cheers. Baekho stood on his feet along with the rest, clapping in pride of his new friend. And Baekho was greeted with another one of Jonghyun's breath-taking smiles. 

After the final bow, Baekho followed the Kwaks to the rear entrance, and greeted Jonghyun, who was packing his violin, laughing with his companions. "You did amazing, as always, Jonghyunnie!" A smaller girl with puffy lips congratulated him on her way past, tapping his shoulder with her own bow.

"Thank you, Ailee. Your chorus solo was beautiful as well, and I could totally hear your improvement. You might steal first chair from me!" He said, not looking at her, but somehow managing to pat her head. "You better watch out, Jonghyun. I'm gonna beat you one day. But until then, second chair is okay. I like the operahouse more, either way." The two smiled at each other, and Jonghyun waved goodbye as she tapped his shoulder once more, signaling her leave. 

The Kwaks held flowers and a teddy bear. "Hyun-ah! You did so well!" They said in unison. Jonghyun scratched his head. "Thank you, so much." The Kwaks pushed their gifts into his hands, and Jonghyun smiled brightly. "Is this a teddy bear?" he asked, touching the soft surface of the toy. "Of course not. It's a puppy. We know how much you want a dog." Mr. Kwak said, patting the boy's arm, smiling at him. 

When they were done congratulating him, Baekho pressed forward. "I- didn't get you anything, I didn't know what to, to be honest." 

"It's fine Baekho. I'm just glad you showed up." Jonghyun replied quickly, his voice sounding so happy Baekho could feel his stomach doing those flips again. "You were amazing, Jonghyun. Really, truly amazing." 

He knew Jonghyun couldn't see how bright red his cheeks turned, but they made Baekho smile. "Thanks, Baekho."

 

* * *

 

By February, Baekho had found a way to keep his parent's business up and running while they were off in Cabo, drinking and gossiping their lives away. He didn't have to leave the hostel in order to run his business, and Ren hadn't bothered them since. But Baekho always worried for Jonghyun. Every time the boy walked out of the hostel saying he was going to school, Baekho wouldn't let him leave until he made sure Jonghyun would text him or call him to let him know he had gotten there safely. 

Campus was only a few blocks away up north, but he worried what could happen. Jonghyun always texted. 

So when Baekho's phone rang, he immediately panicked. He was already on his feet, pulling on shoes, and making sure his jacket was ready to go. He answered, hoping he wouldn't hear the worst.

_ "B-baekho." _ Jonghyun's voice sounded worried. Baekho was already out of the door.  _ "I-" _ Jonghyun's voice cracked. Baekho was running at this point. _ "Baek- oh god. Baekho!"  _

Baekho's steps came to a screeching halt. "Jonghyun?! What's going on, what's wrong?" 

A cry came through the line. Jonghyun's voice was farther away from the line than it should have been. Baekho could hear the pained screams from Jonghyun. It began to dawn on him that maybe Jonghyun wasn't the one who made the call. He was angry, he could hear panting now, and it definitely wasn't Jonghyun's voice. He could  _ hear  _ Jonghyun's voice whimpering in the background, close to crying. "Jonghyun! Answer me!" 

Baekho could hear shuffling on the receiver. Jonghyun's voice sounded much more clear.  _ "Ahh~ Bae-kho! Ah, ahh, ah! _ " Baekho was closing in to the campus. He had his cell phone pressed against his ear. Jonghyun was moaning  _ his  _ name. Jonghyun was somewhere out there, in the hands of someone who wasn't him, and Baekho felt his heart  _ sink _ .

He was running, trying desperately to figure out where Jonghyun was. He hated to think that Jonghyun was going to end up dead in a ditch somewhere. He didn't want to end the call, but when he did, his ears honed in to his surroundings. Baekho tried desperately to  fight back the red he was beginning to see. But when he couldn't hear a single trace of Jonghyun, he gave in. 

Baekho was running, his feet carrying him as fast as they would let him. Before he even knew where he was, Baekho was running to a familiar voice, cellphone in hand, towards the basement of the music hall. When he got there, he immediately saw the what he had feared. 

Jonghyun was laying on the floor, naked and sobbing. He was covered in sweat from exertion, and his stomach was tinged with cum. In the corner of the room, Ren and Minhyun stood, each pulling on their clothes, a camera in Minhyun's hands. 

"I think this will make a perfect reputation killer, don't you think, Rennie?" Minhyun asked, a smirk plastered on his face, his eyes glaring daggers at Baekho.

Ren turned to face Jonghyun, who was still crying. "Of course. He was a terrible fuck, anyway. He wouldn't stop calling out for you, like you're better than me? Look at you, you're hideous. But, I suppose it makes sense that some damaged goods likes someone like you." Ren faced Baekho a malicious smile on his otherwise perfect features.

"What? Are you going to say something? You're nothing but a filthy beast. You don't deserve to have what you do." Minhyun walked to the door as he spoke.  "Jonghyun here deserves to be dead, just like you. You both had a chance to prevent this, but then you turned into a monster, and he," Minhyun pointed at the trembling boy, "He fell in love with it."

Ren scowled. "Jonghyun should have been mine, but he kept refusing, and then you came along, and all he could think about was you. Said he had to meet with you, or that he was going home because he had practice. Why would he go home when he had the music hall to play in? The answer turned out to be you. I got what I wanted. And Minhyun did too." 

"I took what you most wanted, Baekho. A love that would only belong to you. JR here, well, he has my mark all over him now. You will never fully have him, Baekho. When you could have just had me." They left the basement room, and Baekho finally felt his breath leave him. 

He hurried over to Jonghyun, whispering words of encouragement, trying to help him to sit up. Jonghyun winced at every movement, his body was covered in bruises and hickeys. 

"Please, don't look at me." He cried. His head faced the floor, and Baekho could see new tears making their way down his face. Baekho refused to let Jonghyun cry again.

"No. Jonghyun, please. Please don't ever say that to me again." Baekho touched his hair, smoothing it out, and tugging gently as his fingers meshed with the strands. "Let's get you dressed. You're coming home." 

Jonghyun shook his head. "I can't move. Everything hurts." 

Baekho nodded, sighing. "Here. Do you trust me?" he asked before moving to try and help. 

"Yes."

In an instant, Baekho was helping Jonghyun to move, gently lifting him, helping his clothes to slide back on. When he got to the jacket, he pulled Jonghyun close, rubbing small circles on his back. "I'm so sorry. I should have been here sooner."

"It's not your fault. I don't blame you." Jonghyun still refused to face in Baekho's direction.

 

* * *

 

Baekho carried Jonghyun on his back he whole way home, refusing to let him walk in his state. By the time they reached the hostel, Jonghyun had fallen asleep. His soft snores were floating into Baekho's ears, and he decided right then that he would never let Jonghyun out of his sight ever again. He knocked on the door, waiting for Mrs. Kwak to open the door, as soon as she saw them, she moved away, and helped Baekho place Jonghyun in his bedroom.

"Wasn't he supposed to be on campus?" She whispered, looking at Baekho for answers. He nodded, placing Jonghyun gently on the bed. "Something happened, and I need Mr. Kwak's help. Can you please call him for me?" She nodded, stepping out of the room. 

Baekho watched as Jonghyun slept. He was going to fix this. He was going to end those two bastard's lives. They had gotten away with too much, already. He stared at his phone, before entering the basement, Baekho had opened his voice recording app. He was not about to go up against someone without evidence. If Baekho was about to be a witness to a blind man, he sure as hell was going to make sure there was proof.

As Mr. Kwak entered the room, Baekho had been replaying the conversation that took place. He sighed in relief as every word was crystal clear. "Baekho, what happened?" There was worry in his voice, and Baekho felt bad for asking so much of him, but over the last few months, the Kwaks had become family. 

"Jonghyun was... raped. And I want to make sure that there is enough evidence to arrest the bastards who did it, and keep them locked away for as long as possible." Baekho was digging his fingers into his palms. "Baekho, we need to have witnessed it for the authorities to fully believe it."

Baekho nodded. "I witnessed the end of it. They called me when it happened, and by the time I found him..." His voice broke apart. "By the time I found him, it was over. But I know they have actual footage of it, and I know where it could be hidden. I just...I need your help. Please." Baekho's voice was trembling as he turned to Mr. Kwak, his hands gripping his shirt. "I need to protect him!" 

Mr. Kwak placed his hands over Baekho's. "I understand, Baekho. For now, wait until he wakes up, and then help him change. Keep the clothes, they'll be important. I'll see what I can do under the table at the station. For now, take care of him. I haven't seen him smile this much with anyone since we took him in. You've been good to him. And I know he loves you more than he let's on." The old man smiled at the boys as he left them alone. 

Baekho cried for the first time since he was a child. His heart clenched, and he could feel every pump of blood flowing through him, he looked at Jonghyun, and he knew that there was something about him that made his life better. He sobbed quietly as he watched Jonghyun sleep. He pouted his lips, and scrunched his nose in his sleep, Baekho thought it was cute. 

He watched over the smaller boy for hours before he finally stirred in his sleep, a small moan of pain leaving his lips as he tried to move on to his side. Baekho moved to help him sit up. "Don't strain yourself, Hyunnie." Baekho sat next to him on the bed, a hand finding it's way to his back. "I feel disgusting." he breathed. 

Baekho nodded. "Well then let's get you cleaned up, okay?" Jonghyun nodded as Baekho lead him to the bathroom, helping him out of his clothes, making sure the boy went at his own pace. 

"Hyunnie.." He whispered as Baekho got a good look at the bruises on Jonghyun's body. "I'm so sorry."

Jonghyun shook his head. "Stop apologizing for something you had no control over. I'm just upset that I can't report them. I don't even know what they look like." 

Baekho agreed. "You don't. But I do. And I know all of their secrets, too. I'm going to make sure that they end up in prison for what they did."

"But, Baekho, there's no proof!" Jonghyun sounded hysterical. Baekho gripped his shoulders. "Yes, there is. On your clothes, on your body, on my phone. I recorded their little discourse when I got there. That's why I let them keep talking."

Jonghyun's eyes widened. His lips parted and a sob broke through. "Thank you, thank you so much. I can't- I just..." Bakeho hugged the boy as gently as possible. "It's nothing, Hyunnie. Really. I told you back then that I wouldn't let anyone hurt you, and I meant it." 

Jonghyun nodded into Baekho's shoulder. "Okay."

 

* * *

 

Weeks later, and Baekho finally had all the evidence he needed. He had taken it to court, and was turned away. The Chois and the Hwangs had paid it off to the courts before Baekho could even get there. They laughed in their faces, and lead them off of the property. Jonghyun cried uncontrollably when he heard the final decision. Baekho tried his best, and nothing had worked. The Kwaks, despite having ties to several branches of the NYPD could do nothing to search the Hwang's private estate to look for the video. 

Despite all of their attempts, Jonghyun fell silent, only talking when was necessary, only going in public when he was escorted by Baekho to the music hall. His grades dropped, and Baekho felt himself responsible for never seeing Jonghyun's smile anymore. LIke he could have prevented it all. 

People were as cruel as ever. They talked about what had happened, made Jonghyun wish he wasn't alive, called him names, made his life miserable. The only person who never doubted Jonghyun was his orchestra conductor. He had believed Jonghyun wholeheartedly, and Baekho was grateful. Jonghyun would have long since given up on his life if he didn't have music. 

The semester was almost over, and Baekho was starting to worry about his health. Jonghyun had lost so much weight, his face had hollowed out, his fingers grown thinner, his spine showing through. Despite it all, Baekho stood by him, and Jonghyun was thankful. On some days, he woke with bruises from lack of nutrients in his body. 

Baekho always told him he looked beautiful. 

Baekho knew he was in love with Jonghyun completely when he had seen how despite his state, he carried on. How when his conductor told him about a school transfer audition, he beamed. The audition would be for Jonghyun to get into Juilliard, and was only allowed because Jonghyun was a special case, he had his disability, and he was first chair in the orchestra. 

Juilliard had been making a special case for Jonghyun, and he didn't waste it. The moment he was told, Jonghyun beamed, and gripped onto Baekho's arm. "Did you hear that?! Juilliard wants me!" He yelled, his voice echoing off the dome of the music hall. 

Jonghyun had gone home that day and to Baekho's surprise, reached into his closet, pulling out a dusty box. Baekho, I know you can read music. I need your help."

Jonghyun handed the box to Baekho, who opened it. He saw the blank sheets in an unopened pack, but what he was more interested in, was the ones that were written on. There were several sheets covered in notes, hundreds and hundreds of beautiful melodies that Baekho had never heard before.

These were Jonghyun's personal compositions. 

"Tell me what to do." He said, as he pulled out the sheets, reading over them, humming the notes along. 

"That. I want you to do exactly that." 

Days passed, and as Baekho hummed the notes along, Jonghyun fixed them by playing them on his violin. He would smile when he wasn't paying attention, his face relaxed whenever he picked up the violin, and Baekho fell deeper and deeper in love. 

He could only ever stare at the boy, never once getting tired of looking at him. Baekho had long since forgotten about the curse. He was content giving everything up now, he was happy just being around Jonghyun, and everyone could see that, except Jonghyun. 

Baekho would look in the mirror sometimes and see that he still looked hideous, but he didn't care anymore. Why would his appearance affect him if Jonghyun couldn't even see him, or care about it, either? Sometimes, he tried to remember what he looked like before the curse, and he couldn't remember. He didn't want to, either. He was horrible then. His face now, matched what he had done to so many people. He deserved what he got, and in the end, it lead him to Jonghyun.

The days to Jonghyun's audition wound down, and Baekho had taken it upon himself to distract Jonghyun with treats: candy, ice cream, cakes; anything that the boy would eat, Baekho gave him. By the night of the audition, Jonghyun looked healthier, he had gained back some weight, and he was smiling brighter. 

The Kwaks and Baekho lead Jonghyun to his audition, and patiently waited in the very back of the hall. Juilliard's judges sat in the front row, clipboards in hand, anticipating the first note of Jonghyun's very own piece. 

He stood straight as he held his violin by the neck to his chin, resting it gently on the chin rest. Baekho held his breath as Jonghyun held position , his bow hanging briefly above the chords. And he began, placing the bow as gently as possible, dragging it across the bridge of chords, the violin singing a sorrowful song. Jonghyun's eyes were open as he began, looking up into the direction of the stage lights. His fingers danced on the fingerboard, changing the tunes every so often. Jonghyun had changed the song he had originally written so that it told his story, a quiet life that Jonghyun had experienced, dull to most. It changed to a happier tune as Jonghyun's violin sang his experience of being brought into the home of the Kwaks. Soon, the melody dimmed, sounding peaceful, occasionally jumping, and sounding like Jonghyun was leaping over the chords. 

The Kwaks watched in awe as Jonghyun played. The judges wrote notes, without looking down at them. Baekho watched with pride.

The song Jonghyun had written suddenly began to pick up pace. It sounded like a chase, the terror of Jonghyun's past year in school rang through the hall. Baekho felt his heart race along with it. Jonghyun hadn't allowed Baekho to hear the last few pages of music, so this was all new to him, and to Baekho, he felt all the pain and sorrow spilling from Jonghyun's violin; from his own mind. 

The shrieks of the violin calmed, like the end of a storm. The chords that followed were so quiet you almost had to strain to hear it. And then it became louder, slowly building up and soothing over the audience. It was something Baekho nor the others had ever experienced. The song of the violin reminded Baekho of the calm he felt when he found Jonghyun, the relief he felt when Jonghyun would smile genuinely. He saw himself in the song, how Baekho would make Jonghyun laugh at his own expense, and how Jonghyun would tease Baekho for being nice to him so much. 

The song turned sweet, but full of sorrow. Jonghyun closed his eyes, his fingers on the bow gripping tighter, and soon, the last screeching note passed, the last cry of the violin echoing before the silence. Jonghyun blinked as he removed his violin from his shoulder, tears at the edges of his eyes. 

Baekho knew it was unprofessional for the judges to stand on their feet, but when they did, Baekho knew that Jonghyun would get in.

 

* * *

 

"Mr. Kim, this is not protocol, and is completely against the rules to tell you ahead of time, but there is absolutely no way we are going to make you wait for an answer." The eldest woman in the front row moved closer to the stage as Jonghyun knelt down. "Congratulations, Mr, Kim. You will be starting your official training at Juilliard in August, along with the other applicants. We will see you then." She reached for his hands, knowing full well he wasn't able to see them. 

Jonghyun's tears were held back until the moment that Baekho walked up the stage to help him gather his violin. 

"Hyunnie! Congrats!" Jonghyun spun to face Baekho, immediately jumping into his arms, Baekho hugging him tightly. 

"Thank you, Baekho. Thank you so much!" He was grinning from ear to ear. 

Baekho was about to say more, to tell Jonghyun how perfect the song was, and how talented he was, when Jonghyun let go of him enough to reach his hands up to Baekho's face. He froze, Jonghyun's ice cold fingers touching his face after all this time. 

"I love you, Baekho." Jonghyun whispered, before bringing his face closer to Baekho's pressing his lips all over his face. 

Baekho's heart swelled, Jonghyun was kissing him. Jonghyun loved him. Despite everything that ever happened, Jonghyun loved him. And that was all that mattered to Baekho as he pulled the smaller boy cin close, crashing their lips together. All the feelings Baekho possessed for Jonghyun spilled into the kiss, and he swore he has never been happier in his life. 

"I love you too, Hyunnie." He whispered against his lips as they separated. 

The last thing on Baekho's mind was the curse, but as they heard the Kwaks gasp from their seats, Baekho looked at them. They were pointing at Baekho, who looked down and saw that the claws were no longer there, the silver in his veins began to disappear. Baekho immediately shot his hands up to his face, where the scarred tissue was beginning to right itself. 

Baekho blinked hard as he began to feel his skin as soft as how it had once been. It wasn't as dramatic as his transformation had been the first time, and he was thankful that he wasn't a broken mess again.

"Congrats, Baekho." A girlish voice rang from behind Jonghyun. The boys both turned to face her. "Baekho? What's going on?" Jonghyun asked., his hands finding Baekho's and gripping them.

"Don't worry, Jonghyun. It's just a friend." 

"Is it the witch?" he asked. The girl smiled as Jonghyun spoke.

"Yes, but I go by Raina, thank you very much." She laughed. 

Baekho pulled Jonghyun closer to him. "Oh, relax. I'm not going to do anything. In fact, I really am here to congratulate you. I didn't think you could do it, Baekho, the whole falling in love thing." She smiled proudly at him. "You suffered a lot, but your real pain happened when you met Jonghyun. So, I can't say you didn't go unpunished." 

"Is that it, Raina?" Baekho asked.

She shook her head. "No. It's not." 

She looked at both boys, her lips pressing together in an odd way, making her look like a kid. "I'm here, to give you a gift."

Both boys' expressions changed. "Gift?" 

She nodded at Baekho. "A gift. You've both gone through quite a lot, and I would be a liar if I said that Jonghyun doesn't deserve to be happy." She moved her hand to the inside of her jacket. "These, are official documents that will protect the both of you, under court of law. If Minhyun Hwang or Ren Choi ever try to ruin your lives again, all of their dirty little secrets will be released to the public. I can't do much about your case, Jonghyun, but I can give the both of you this, at least." 

"H-how..?" He asked. 

The girl shrugged. "Let's just say there was a little bit of magic involved. Plus, my dad is Chief of Police." 

Baekho's eyes widened. She winked at him. 

"Be happy boys."

It took several years, but Baekho and Jonghyun now lived by themselves on the outskirts of the Upper West Side, knowing each other inside out. Baekho had indeed taken over his family's company, and they were thriving more, now that Baekho had taken over and changed their more crude ideals. Jonghyun had become a composer for the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, having been one of their brightest players, loving every single second his music was played on a massive scale. They had retired the Kwaks, who had decided to move to Bayshore for the rest of their lives.  

Ren and Minhyun families were brought down by their own ignorance, having been caught for embezzling millions, and several other misdeeds and thrown in jail with no chance at parole or bail. 

The witch was never seen again, which pleased Baekho a little too much, according to Jonghyun. 

Their lives were complete, and Jonghyun loved Baekho almost as much as Baekho loved him.

They reminded each other every night how much they did, in between stolen kisses and teasing bites, whispers of 'I love you' echoing as each of them came to their finish, their breathing heavy, skin slick with sweat and their lips clinging to each other. The night always ended with them sleeping in each other's embrace, content sighs, and deep breathing as sleep overtook them. 


End file.
